Officials with the Iowa DCI (Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation), Thursday, obtained a state search warrant for the residences of Greg Stephen in Monticello and Delhi, Iowa.  The search warrant affidavit states that a device had previously been obtained from Stephen’s  Monticello residence and was examined by law enforcement agents.

The affidavit states the device was found to contain video clips believed to depict young, non-adult disrobed male individuals.  Based on the investigation, the male individuals do not appear to be aware they were being recorded.

The DCI says it seeks any information regarding this investigation.  Members of the public with information or parents with questions or information should call 563-284-9506.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — The owner of a gun that a 4-year-old boy used to accidentally kill himself in Iowa last year has been sentenced. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa says Daniel Henriksen was sentenced Wednesday to two months in federal prison and three years of supervised release. He had pleaded guilty last year to a federal count of possessing a firearm while being an unlawful user of marijuana.

Prosecutors say Henriksen had left his .45-caliber handgun in a mobile home where Jayden Choate and two other preschoolers were staying on June 17, 2016. Police say Jayden found the gun near where he and the other children were napping and accidentally shot himself in the head.

Henriksen had faced up to 10 years in prison.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court has denied an appeal filed by an Iowa farmer-turned-reality television celebrity charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident. Chris Soules asked the Iowa Supreme Court to dismiss the felony charge before it goes to trial. He contends Iowa law doesn’t require fatal wreck surviving drivers to wait for police but state prosecutors say it does.

Soules asked a judge to dismiss the case but the judge declined last month and Soules appealed. The high court Friday denied his request to hear the appeal. Soules appeared on “The Bachelor” and “Dancing With The Stars” in 2015.

He struck a tractor driven by a neighbor on April 24 last year in northern Iowa. He called 911 and waited for first responders but left before police arrived.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley spoke at the Greater Burlington Partnership this (Friday) morning — with gun control one of the main topics. A woman pulled out a wallet-sized photo and showed it to the Republican Senator. “This is my son,” the woman said, “yesterday I spoke to his teacher… and she was in tears because she is scared that she is going to be gunned down in her classroom.”

Many showed up to challenge Grassley’s stance on new gun control measures in the wake of a Florida school shooting that left 17 dead last week. Grassley said he wouldn’t support a new ban on so-called “assault weapons,” he said the 1994 ban was allowed to sunset for a reason. “Because it demanded a study that the National Institute of Justice… to do a study whether the ban cut down on crime and murder, and that showed it didn’t,” Grassley says he is willing to consider changing things with an “intellectual basis,” however says the study “proves otherwise” for a new ban on AR-15 style rifles.

Around 150 people were in attendance for the event, in which Grassley discussed infrastructure, the farm bill, federal tax-cut, and even President Donald Trump’s tweeting habits. “He hurts himself by tweeting,” Grassley says. “When he does something that is really good…then tweets something irrelevant it detracts from it. If he doesn’t have the approval rating he thinks he ought to have…it’s probably his own fault.”

The stop was part of Grassley’s 99 county tour of Iowa, which also includes stops in Keosauqua and Wapello today.

(Radio Iowa)

A bill that has cleared the Iowa Senate was inspired by he security breach at a credit reporting agency that exposed millions in the U.S., Canada and Britain to identity theft. Senator Brad Zaun’s bill would forbid the agencies from charging consumers a fee to freeze their credit in hopes of preventing scammers from taking out loans with the stolen information.

“It’s time that we stand up to these credit reporting agencies,” Zaun says, “and I think this is a step in the right direction.” Equifax temporarily waived fees when its security breach was made public, but it generally costs 10 dollars to put a freeze on your own credit report — and 12 dollars to get it lifted. Hackers stole names, birthdates and Social Security numbers in May and June of last year, but Equifax didn’t disclose the theft until September.

“I personally find responsible Equifax for not having the safeguards in place,” Zaun says. “I can say, in full disclosure, that my information was breached.” Similar bills have been introduced in other states. A bill in Oregon’s legislature would go further and require a credit reporting agency to notify consumers within 45 days of any breach of their personal information. Zaun’s bill banning agencies like Equifax from charging consumers a fee to freeze their credit cleared the Iowa Senate this week by a unanimous vote.

“This is a very important issue,” Zaun said. “With the internet the way it is today, we’re really vulnerable.” Senator Herman Quirmbac of Ames says he is a recent victim of identity theft. “I was notifed a couple of weeks ago by the Social Security Administration that somebody had filed for my benefits,” Quirmbach says. “…Fortunately, their security was better than Equifax’s and they did catch this and the claim was denied, but since then I have been through a lot of hassle trying to shut off a lot of other vulnerabilities.”

Zaun says both he and his wife have run into similar problems trying to clean up their credit record after a security breach.  “I, for one, have tried to correct some of the mistakes on my credit report and it sounds as if I might be a little bit biased, but it takes an act of congress or an act of God to change something on your credit reports,” Zaun says. More than a million Iowans were affected by the Equifax security breach. Attorney General Tom Miller urged Iowans to check their credit reports and freeze their credit as protection from imposters.

(Radio Iowa)

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — A March trial has been scheduled for a man accused of killing an acquaintance in central Iowa’s Jasper County.
Court records say the new starting date is March 7 for 52-year-old Randy Linderman, of Charles City. He’s pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the slaying of 61-year-old Jose Ramirez Berber. A family member found Berber’s body inside his rural Newton home on March 6 last year. Linderman’s first trial date was Oct. 18.

The Newton Daily News reports that DNA evidence taken from Berber’s body and clothing matched that of Linderman. Investigators say Linderman acknowledged that he’d been to Berber’s home several times.